Photosynth (Image)

UPDATE 21/08/08: As from today you can create your own synths online (see video above)
It Is not an available app yet, but its preview it's definetely cool.

Photosynth is a program that takes a large collection of photos of a place or an object, analyzes them for similarities, and then displays the photos in a reconstructed three-dimensional space, showing you how each one relates to the next.

Web Site: http://www.photosynth.com/
License: N/A

CrazyTalk (Creativity)

I recently stumbled upon the following video on YouTube:
What's so special with this video? MotionPortrait claims that it was created from a single picture! They have not yet realeased any software but by searching the internet I found CrazyTalk, which is a program that does exactly the same, Facial Animation & Lip-sync.

In other words you feed the program with a single 2D picture and you can animate it. You can even make it talk (either with Text-to-Speech or even with a wav file). You must try it to believe it.

WebSite: http://www.reallusion.com/crazytalk/
License: Trialware
Similar Technology: http://www.motionportrait.com/e/

Fun With Attractors (Fun)

This time I will propose something different, games in which you can have some fun with gravity.

Here and here you can find two flash games(?) where you can play with gravity (no purpose - very addictive)

If you want something that looks more like a game, go and download Strange Attractors by Ominous Development.

In this game everything is controlled with a single button that toggles in the influence of gravity between your ship and everything else.

Have fun :-)

Edit: For more physics games check this excellent site Fun-Motion

PaperBack (Backup ;-)

PaperBack is a free application that allows you to make backups on ... paper!
With the use of good laser printer the author claims that you can save up to 500,000 bytes of uncompressed data on a single A4/Letter sheet. To restore your backups you just need a scanner.

To answer your obvious question "Why use that program?" I'll quote from authors site:
"You may ask - why? Why, for heaven's sake, do I need to make paper backups, if there are so many alternative possibilities (...) The answer is simple: you don't. However, by looking on CD or magnetic tape, you are not able to tell whether your data is readable or not. You must insert your medium into the drive (if you have one!) and try to read it."

Site: PaperBack 1.00
License: Freeware

ASCII Generator dotNET (Creativity)

Ascii Generator dotNET (ascgen2) is an application to convert images into high quality ASCII art - text that accurately represents the original image. The program has a real-time output preview, colour output,batch conversion and mach more.

Visit its website and watch some very cool creations (even video clips)

Web Site: http://ascgendotnet.jmsoftware.co.uk/
License: Open Source
ASCII Art: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASCII_art

Physics Illustrator (Education)

EDIT: A great alternative is this:Physion

Recently I saw this video:



By searching around I found a simple program that does almost the same things:
You sketch some object, connect them with springs, ropes or joints, add forces to the system and then watch its behaviour in real time.



The program is Physics Illustrator from microsoft and originally runs only on tablet pcs. However there some builds in the wild that can run on any pc.

Also Design-simulation offers similar but more proffesional and complex programs (and the program used in the video)

Download (Tablet ver): Download from Microsoft
Download (XP ver): Download from RapidShare
License: Open Source
Similar programs: Physion , Design-Simulation

Click Here for a great ebook on Physics!